Make no bones about it; the focus this week will be on two topics - jobs and heroes. They are fitting subjects in a week that began with the Labor Day holiday, and which ends with the tenth anniversary of the disasters of 9/11.
On Monday, a handful of 2012 GOP Presidential candidates held the first of TWO debate-like events this week - without Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who flew back to Texas to posture but not really do anything about the wildfires ravaging his state. Not surprisingly, at the forum hosted by Tea Party poser Sen. Jim Demint of South Carolina, the five Republican candidates attacked the President - though they also increasingly went after each other.
Meanwhile, the REAL President Obama - or at least the version of him that won the election in 2008 - gave a rousing speech at an AFL-CIO Labor Day event in Detroit, Michigan. His message was positive, upbeat, and didn't include discussions of the debt, deficit, or "shared sacrifice." Instead, the President addressed the war on workers, as well as the blatant hypocrisy of the Republican Party.
The President said, "I know it’s not easy when there's some folks who have their sights trained on you. After all that unions have done to build and protect the middle class, you’ve got people trying to claim that you’re responsible for the problems middle-class folks are facing. You’ve got Republicans saying you’re the ones exploiting working families. Imagine that."
For once, the President didn't back down on his criticism of Congressional Republicans and their plan to bog down the country's business for the forseeable future - and he told Congress they MUST pass a jobs bill and they needed to give tax breaks to working class Americans, if they were going to give them to anyone at all.
"We’re going to see if we’ve got some straight shooters in Congress. We’re going to see if congressional Republicans will put country before party," the President said. "You want -- you say you’re the party of tax cuts? Well then, prove you’ll fight just as hard for tax cuts for middle-class families as you do for oil companies and the most affluent Americans. Show us what you got."
His speech was good - but we sincerely hope he backs it up with action for a change.
There are a great many things the Executive Branch of the U.S. government cannot do alone - including save the economy. While President Obama may have presided over eighteen straight months of meager but positive PRIVATE job sector growth, the lack of Congress in doing anything meaningful on jobs or the economy has lead the public sector - local, state, and federal governments - to cut jobs so hard any private sector growth has been cancelled out. The lack of participation by Congress is the biggest single reason everything the President has tried so far to help spur our economy has ended up returning only half-baked results.
There are 535 voting members of Congress and nine Supreme Court justices, as well as over 210 million voting-age Americans (but no voting corporations) who are all part of this government. Millions of these same Americans need jobs that corporations and businesses - who are sitting on billions of dollars in cash - have yet to create, at least not in this country.
We don't expect the President's speech on jobs this week to magically create massive demand in the marketplace - the REAL reason private companies and corporations have remained siting on the sidelines for so long. Even if private sector growth exploded, until we correct the gaping loopholes in our tax code that the rich and corporations fly through all the time, the public sector still won't have the money it needs, and America will continue hemorrhaging public sector jobs.
We also don't expect Congress - especially the Republicans in Congress - to do anything on the jobs front. Most of the cowards on both sides of the Congressional aisle were too afraid to even have town hall meetings with their constituents last month. They sure as hell aren't likely to upset their corporate campaign donors by pushing for a more just tax code in an election year.
What we do expect this week, from both President Obama, as well as his Republican challengers, is some hard details on how they plan to enlist the millions of Americans who have been waiting to become heroes in our own economic recovery.
What those details and plans will reveal is just who is ready to lead this country forward, towards progress. Those millions of Americans who have been without work for far too long are watching closely, and will surely remember this week come election day 2012.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
What Labor Day SHOULD Mean
Today is Labor Day, a day for Americans to celebrate and honor the real working-class individuals who made America the legendary country many of us remember. Labor Day is meant to celebrate the struggles of those who stood up for and were part of the working class, whose sacrifices have given large numbers of people in America and worldwide lives that are more that just simply existing.
It was never exclusively the rich - the "job creators" as Republicans try to call them these days - that brought about the long-term stability and prosperity of the working class. It was working men and women, and organizations like labor unions, that caused those in power to finally take the concerns of working people seriously.
Sadly, in America today, Labor Day has ceased to have much meaning at all.
Of course, when you have a political and social system that's been unjustly set against those who truly work for a living, by those who don't have a clue on what it is to do an honest day's work (or what an honest day's work is truly worth), you get the kind of inequality in the workplace Americans currently face every day.
Many of you are among those workers who don't know what it's like to be part of a workforce where employers didn't treat you like a number, like a replaceable part, just another money-sucking expense. Today we offer you a few facts to help you understand who and what Labor Day is supposed to celebrate - and why some would like this holiday and its meaning to be forgotten.
If your pay, or your work schedule is based (even loosely) on the idea of a 40 hour work week, big business bosses didn't do that for you. Organized labor and collective bargaining did that. Corporations have fought the 40-hour work week for years, and they usually break that rule whenever they can get away with it.
Unions gave you the eight hour day and the 40 hour work week, and by doing so gave you the weekend you just finished - or may still be enjoying.
The minimum wage you started earning as a young worker? Labor unions helped to get that for you, too.
Even though pension plans and access to health insurance have been shrinking more and more over the last thirty years, the basic ideas of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid would never have happened without the support of the working men and women of organized labor. Our general system of retirement planning and health insurance in America would also never have been possible, were it not for men & women of unions fighting - and, sadly, dying at times - for Americans to have those benefits that we now too often take for granted.
Without working class Americans & their unions, children would still likely be working in factories, as they do in many other places in the world.
Today, if you are lucky enough to have the day off, we simply ask that you think about the reality of working life in America - and around the world - and realize a key fact.
No matter what economic class you currently live in, or what you think of labor unions and the American working class, without them, your life and the lives of millions of people would be drastically different - and likely MUCH worse.
Enjoy your day off (if you're indeed lucky enough to not be working today) - and remember those who made it possible for you to have any days off in the first place.
It was never exclusively the rich - the "job creators" as Republicans try to call them these days - that brought about the long-term stability and prosperity of the working class. It was working men and women, and organizations like labor unions, that caused those in power to finally take the concerns of working people seriously.
Sadly, in America today, Labor Day has ceased to have much meaning at all.
Of course, when you have a political and social system that's been unjustly set against those who truly work for a living, by those who don't have a clue on what it is to do an honest day's work (or what an honest day's work is truly worth), you get the kind of inequality in the workplace Americans currently face every day.
Many of you are among those workers who don't know what it's like to be part of a workforce where employers didn't treat you like a number, like a replaceable part, just another money-sucking expense. Today we offer you a few facts to help you understand who and what Labor Day is supposed to celebrate - and why some would like this holiday and its meaning to be forgotten.
If your pay, or your work schedule is based (even loosely) on the idea of a 40 hour work week, big business bosses didn't do that for you. Organized labor and collective bargaining did that. Corporations have fought the 40-hour work week for years, and they usually break that rule whenever they can get away with it.
Unions gave you the eight hour day and the 40 hour work week, and by doing so gave you the weekend you just finished - or may still be enjoying.
The minimum wage you started earning as a young worker? Labor unions helped to get that for you, too.
Even though pension plans and access to health insurance have been shrinking more and more over the last thirty years, the basic ideas of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid would never have happened without the support of the working men and women of organized labor. Our general system of retirement planning and health insurance in America would also never have been possible, were it not for men & women of unions fighting - and, sadly, dying at times - for Americans to have those benefits that we now too often take for granted.
Without working class Americans & their unions, children would still likely be working in factories, as they do in many other places in the world.
Today, if you are lucky enough to have the day off, we simply ask that you think about the reality of working life in America - and around the world - and realize a key fact.
No matter what economic class you currently live in, or what you think of labor unions and the American working class, without them, your life and the lives of millions of people would be drastically different - and likely MUCH worse.
Enjoy your day off (if you're indeed lucky enough to not be working today) - and remember those who made it possible for you to have any days off in the first place.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Friday Funday: Fall Is Here... Or Close Enough
As we're fairly sure at least some of the people in your life - or at least in your neighborhood - have made you aware, football season begins this weekend.
In fact, if the football nuts you know love just about any kind of college football, we're sure they were watching some less-than stellar games last night - and they still probably had a grin a mile wide on their faces. For fans of the NFL, the preseason action has already been going for a couple of weeks, with the regular season beginning next Thursday night.
Of course, for HuskerNutz, the REAL season begins tomorrow, at home in Memorial Stadium against the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Mocs (short for mockingbirds).
We're well aware there will be more than a few changes in store for Husker fans this year.
For one thing, no tailgating on the East Side of Memorial Stadium this season. Or probably next season either, due to stadium expansion construction. Husker road games won't take us to familiar haunts in Manhattan, Boulder, or Ames this football season. No Eskimo Joe's this year, either.
We do have our own TV network, now - that we share EQUALLY with the rest of our new Big Ten conference family, so seeing the game on TV shouldn't be a problem, whether we're in Florida, DC, or at home in Nebraska.
Some things remain the same - like HuskerNutz worrying about the status of popular players, or how our quarterback will take the stress of leading the team. Of course, our favorite colors on Husker game days are still scarlet & cream - although nearly any shade of red & white will do. And as always, we're certain the Tunnel Walk will send shivers up and down our spines.
It's OK to look back fondly on some of our former Big 12 and Big 8 conference-mates - including the Husker's only TRUE rival, the Oklahoma Sooners. We're proud of our history with them - and even more proud that some of our former conference brethren have found the courage to stand up to the bullies in Texas burnt orange, and make their own move towards brighter futures. To the Aggies at A&M, and the Buffs of Colorado, we can only say 'Good luck' in your new directions.
Tomorrow is the dawn of a brand new Husker football season, in a brand new conference, with new teams to play, new towns to visit, new people to introduce our traditions to - and new traditions that their fans can teach to us, a willing audience of the best fans in college football.
No matter where you go this season, whether the Huskers win or lose, we hope you display your Husker pride with honor, grace, humor, and humility.
There's truly no place like Nebraska.
Now let's go show everyone how to be players and fans of the highest caliber.
Enjoy your weekend.
And Go Big Red!
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